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What’s The Fuss About Carbs?

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Carbohydrates are a macronutrient. The three macronutrients are carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Carbohydrates supply our bodies with their main source of fuel: glucose (also known as blood sugar). Yes, we run on sugar but before you head to the cupboard to down a sack of sugar, read on. Our bodies create glucose by breaking down the carbohydrates we eat throughout the day. Our bodies can also create glucose from proteins and fat but it is much more difficult to do and requires a great deal more energy in the form of calories. (It is easy for the body to make … Continue reading →

Foods That Are Good For Your Teeth

The food you eat helps build a strong, healthy body — that includes your teeth! Adding a few simple things to your diet can help your choppers stay strong and healthy. Watch when you eat your carbs. Carbohydrates break down into sugars, which can be converted to plaque in the mouth. Plaque is the primary cause of gum disease and cavities! If you snack on carbs like chips, cookies, and crackers, foods can get caught between teeth and under the gum line, making it easy for bacteria to get to work. If you eat your carbs at mealtimes, you’ll be … Continue reading →

Author Challenges The Obsession with Obesity

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In her book, Rethinking Thin Gina Kolata argues that being fat is not something that people have control over. A researcher asked the question: Would you rather be fat or blind? Kolata, a science reporter for The New York Times, shares the answers to the researcher’s question. 89 percent of respondents to this question all agreed that they would rather lose their sight than be fat. When you’re blind, people want to help you. No one wants to help you when you’re fat. The idea that people would rather be blind than fat is shocking, but once you start reading … Continue reading →

Carbohydrate Blockers Do Work

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I am a carboholic. I have a major problem with starchy carbohydrates. The problem is that I love them. They are comfort food. Cookies, bagels, homemade bread, if it starts with flour then I love it. The problem for me is twofold: 1. These sorts of things do terrible things to my blood sugar. (Raising it and then dropping it to unheard of lows to the point where I need to take a nap.) 2. Whenever I eat starchy carbohydrates I retain lots of extra water so that my body can process and digest them. (A single bagel can show … Continue reading →

Why You Need To Be Careful Going Low Carb

Though the height of the low-carb phase has died out, many people struggling to lose weight still turn to low carbohydrate diets. In many cases, when adhered to strictly, these diets produce a great weight loss in a much shorter period of time than with other eating plans. But before you decide to jump on the low-carb bandwagon, there are a few things you need to consider: Low carb diets aren’t for wimps-That’s right, if you’re one of those dieters who starts a diet on Monday only to cave by Wednesday, do not do a low-carb diet. Why? Because as … Continue reading →

“My brother’s got it, too.” Siblings with Juvenile Diabetes

This photograph makes me smile, because it shows the playful personality of my boys so well. (I have two other sons, Kyle and Liam, and three daughters not pictured.) Riley, age eleven, is finally getting into the groove of his diabetic routine. It has been two months since his diagnosis. For an eleven-year-old, he’s amazingly responsible and careful. Yet there’s something so unfair about a kid having to spend his life giving himself shots. I’m very proud of how he’s handling all this. At first, he was reluctant to give himself the injections, and we didn’t push the issue. His … Continue reading →

Science at Home: Super Solutions

I recently went to a home schooling convention where I heard the term HENSE for the first time. The letters stand for the following: Home Educators who Never do Science Experiments. Being a closet scientist married to another closet scientist, the thought is incomprehensible to me. But, as I soon found out there are a variety of reasons moms don’t do science experiments. Sometimes the experiments don’t work and there is nothing worse than going through all that trouble to do a dud of an experiment. Sometimes the materials needed are so obscure or difficult to obtain, that it’s not … Continue reading →